Re-imagining urban movement

At the Intersection of a Nature Reserve, Underground Railway and Eco-Bridge

Bibliographic Data

ID2965510
AuthorsJamie Wang (0000-0001-9564-0008, The University of Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume25
Issue2
Pages8-30
Publication date2019-12-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1446-8123 • E-ISSN: 1837-8692
PublisherUniversity of Technology, Sydney (UTS) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5130/csr.v25i2.6213
OpenAlexW2998406305
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited22

In 2013, the Singapore government announced a plan to build the Cross Island Line (CRL), the country's eighth Mass Rapid Transit train line. Since its release, the proposal has caused ongoing heated debate as it involves going underneath Singapore's largest remaining reserve: the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Following extended discussions with environmental groups, the transport authority later stated that they would now consider two route options: a direct alignment running underneath the Central Reserve, and an alternative route that skirts the reserve boundary. The authority warned that the skirting option could increase the construction cost significantly and cost commuters an extra few minutes of travel time. Intriguingly, in contrast to the underground rail project that threatens to further fragment the Central Reserve, another, more visible, repair work is taking place at the edge of the same reserve, aiming to reconnect fragmented habitat through an eco-bridge. Through these two seemingly contrasting yet intimately related case studies in a highly developed city-state, this article explores the complexity and ambivalence of urban movement and its entanglement with development, techonology and urban natures. How are the discourses of urban mobility directed by the desire for 'velocity', the politics of invisibility, and a fixation on certainty? What might it mean to reconfigure contemporary practices and ethics towards multispecies movements in an increasingly urbanised environment? Amid the growing expansions of infrastructure and public transportation in Singapore and around the world, often in the name of sustainability and liveability, this article unsettles some taken-for-granted, velocity-charged and human-centred approaches to urban movement and explores the serious need to craft new possibilities for a more inclusive and flourishing urban movement

Ambivalence · Archaeology · Geography · Nature reserve · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sustainability · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Ecology

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